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What I learned while teaching kids at Flying Robot School
Daryl Wilding-McBride CTO @ DiUS
CTO at DiUS
CASA-certified Remotely Piloted Aircraft controller
Co-founder of Flying Robot School
About me
Evaluating causes
Flying Robot School
Other programs for social impact
Benefits of volunteering your tech skills
About this talk
Colleagues & co-founders
Motivation
People want to make things better
‘Work’ and ‘Life’ are not separate
Paid workHobbies
Family
Waking hours capacity
Unpaid work
Assessing effort
Bread on the table. Wolves from the door.
Good tech. Learning new things.
Business impact. Innovative in some way.
Creates a legacy. Passes the BBQ test.
It’s your assessment
Your level varies over time
Unpaid work
Paid work
How effective do I want to be?
80000hours.org
80,000 hours
Doing good, lean
PlayPumps
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
Scale
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
Scale Magnitude of the problem.
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
ScaleHow many resources are dedicated to it.
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
Scale
How easy is it to make progress.
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
Scale
How likely are you to make a difference.
Personal fit
Tractability
Neglectedness
Scale
Prioritising causes
Rural education
Access from rural areas
Too few choosing STEM
Too few girls in STEM
Rural education
Access to Education for Rural Students, Victorian Auditor-General, April 2014 http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20140403-Rural-Students/20140403-Rural-Students.html
Country kids are less likely to continue to further study
Community expectations
Individual aspirations
Family expectations
Financial issues
IsolationBarriers
Too few choose STEM
“the subject is fun and interesting”
science
93%
mathematics
75%year 6
63% 42%year 9
Science and Mathematics Participation Rates and Initiatives, Victorian Auditor-General’s Report, 2012 http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20120606-science-and-maths/20120606-science-and-maths.pdf
Too few are girls
2001
7.5%
2011
21.5%girls
3.1% 9.8%boys
Marginson, S, Tytler, R, Freeman, B & Roberts, K (2013). STEM: Country comparisons. Report for the Australian Council of Learned Academies http://www.acola.org.au/PDF/SAF02Consultants/SAF02_STEM_%20FINAL.pdf
not continuing with mathematics after year 10
Flying Robot School
Help kids overcome the barriers
Get them thinking about worthwhile work
Daryl Pete
Paula (P2)
Trevor
Paula (P1)
Spend a school day with drones
Role models
Experience they wouldn’t have otherwise
Topics
Lean Open source
Physics
Sensors
Worthwhile applications
Manual controlAutonomous
flightExtending the
robot
Coding flight
Safety & Regulations
Topics
Lean Open source
Physics
Sensors
Worthwhile applications
Manual controlAutonomous
flightExtending the
robot
Coding flight
Safety & Regulations
C
AB
D
24
3m3m
3m 3m
3
1
Rural applications
Checking sheepSurveying crops
Land along waterways Dam levels
Measuring carbon
Scouting
What we’ve learned
We’ve iterated the vehicle … and the application
Version 1: Build a quadcopter
Version 2: Sensor pod
Version 3: Off-the-shelf
http://sustainability.ceres.org.au/project/what-inspires-me-interview-with-andrew-mahar/
What’s the challenge?
Can you use the UAV to
measure the circumference of
a tree’s trunk at 120 cm
from the ground?
120cm
? cm
Version 4: Modifiable off-the-shelf
https://3dr.com/about/open-source/
What’s next
Topics
Lean Open source
Physics
Sensors
Worthwhile applications
Manual controlAutonomous
flightExtending the
robot
Coding flight
Safety & Regulations
Topics
Lean Open source
Physics
Sensors
Worthwhile applications
Manual controlAutonomous flight
Extending the robot
Coding flight
Safety & Regulations
http://dronekit.io/
DroneKit
C
AB
D
24
3m3m
3m 3m
3
1
from FRSSolo import Vehicle, Location from math import sin, radians
vehicle = Vehicle() home = vehicle.location heading = vehicle.heading theta = atan(5.0/10.0) # finally we get to use trigonometry d = 5.0/sin(theta) # distance from home to coneA coneA = home.translate(d, (heading + degrees(theta)) % 360) coneB = coneA.translate(10, heading) coneC = coneB.translate(10, (heading - 90) % 360) coneD = coneC.translate(10, (heading - 180) % 360)
takeoff(3) # ascend to 3 meters above ground move_to(coneA) move_to(coneB) move_to(coneC) move_to(coneD) move_to(coneA)
move_to(home) land()
Measuring effectiveness
5 schools
63 kids
27%Girls attending overall
0%Girls attending after incursion model
40%
97%Fun & interesting
69%Certain about a career in STEM
90%Girls certain about a career in STEM
Scale Good
Neglectedness Good
Tractability Needs work
Personal fit Great
Tractability
“I hope this is going to be good, because I skipped a night out getting pissed with
my mates last night.”
Year 10 boy
Other paths to impact
Random Hacks of Kindness
Code Club
FIRST Robotics
NodeBots (http://nodebots.io/)
Robogals (http://www.robogals.org/)
Why it’s important to volunteer your tech skills
Kids
Benefits
Us
Our employersCommunity
Sponsors
Try a startup, without leaving your day job
An obligation to do it
Helps increase your worthwhile work
A three-point plan
Decide how effective you want to be
Assess causes
Invest your effort
Daryl Wilding-McBride @DarylWMcB [email protected] github.com/flyingrobotschool
